Campaigners estimate that more than 140,000 baby harp seals will be either clubbed or shot to death by 3,500 fishermen in a hunt that has been driven by an increased worldwide demand for seal pelt products. Authorities deny that the white-furred youngsters will be killed.

But animal rights' activists hoping to document the slaughter say Canadian authorities refused to co-operate with them.

This year's seal hunt, in which 350,000 animals will be killed, has created the sort of international controversy last seen two decades ago when a global outcry ended the seal skin market. The campaign, backed by celebrities, said baby seals were often skinned alive by hunters.

A renewed international protest initiative began after Canada announced last year a quota of 975,000 seals that could be killed off Newfoundland and Labrador through 2005.

Canadian federal authorities say new regulations mean that white-furred seals not yet weaned from their mothers are no longer killed and that the animals are treated in a more humane way. They also say that the region's harp seal are far from endangered, now numbering an estimated 5.2 million. Source.

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